Born and raised in Long Beach, California, Morgan caught the filmmaking bug early on. On weekends, he and his friends would shoot and edit their own episodes of Miami Vice, complete with car chases and rooftop shoot-outs. Zip-lock bags of flour for cocaine. This hobby became his major at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received his BA in Film Studies in 1992, having completed two short films. At UCSB, Morgan also worked in numerous editorial positions at the Daily Nexus, the campus newspaper. In 1993, his coverage of the Los Angeles Riots won several awards, including first place for best news story in the national Columbia Scholastic Press Awards, and third place for best news story in the California Intercollegiate Press Awards.

After Santa Barbara, Morgan spent a year studying film theory at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he made the short film Godard disait que... which was bought by the Videoteque de Paris. In 1993, Morgan was accepted into New York University's Graduate Film Program, where he earned his M.F.A. During the summer of 1994, Morgan landed an internship at a small production company where he was introduced to Todd Solondz, a young writer/director who was gearing up to shoot Welcome to the Dollhouse. Morgan served as 2nd Assistant Director on Dollhouse, which went on to win the 1996 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. It was also on this film that Morgan became friends with actor Brendan Sexton III, a co-star on Dollhouse and the star of Hurricane Streets.

Hurricane Streets, Morgan's first feature film, was made as his thesis for NYU and in 1997 became the first film to win three awards at the Sundance Film Festival (Audience Award, Best Director, and Best Cinematography). Following the critical success of Hurricane Streets, Morgan wrote the script and raised the money for Desert Blue, his second feature. In it, he again teamed up with actor Brendan Sexton III. The film also stars Christina Ricci, and was Kate Hudson's debut film.

Morgan has been involved in a variety of shorter projects, including his first forays into the world of television. He has directed an episode of "Dawson's Creek", a short film for Showtime, starring Janeane Garofalo. Morgan also wrote "Flashpoint" - an hour-long drama pilot - which was purchased by the Fox Network. He has also directed two music videos, one charted # 3 on M2 in 2000 (for the band Rilo Kiley), and several TV commercials.

In 2004, Morgan produced MTV's "Laguna Beach”, a half-hour show which premiered Fall, 2004. His last feature, Piggy Banks, is currently making festival rounds. Just Like The Son marks Morgan's return to writing and is the second part of his Hurricane Streets trilogy. He is currently writing his next project.